Young Bengals Receivers Step Up

One of the biggest questions coming out
of the Bengals training camp was whether or not the team could find a
second receiver to complement A.J. Green — for at least one day. In the
Bengals’ 34-27 victory over the Browns, Cincinnati had some weaknesses
exposed, but the receiving corps certainly wasn’t one of them.

The Browns were playing without starting
cornerback Joe Haden, who was serving the first game of a four-game
suspension, and the team is hardly know for its stout secondary, but the
Bengals receiver corps did what it was supposed to do in that situation
— dominate. Armon Binns, Brandon Tate and Andrew Hawkins combined for
10 catches for 193 yards in the win, while A.J. Green had seven catches
for 58 yards while constantly facing the extra attention that goes along
with being an elite wide receiver in the NFL.

Indeed, it was Hawkins’ 50-yard touchdown
catch in the fourth quarter that showed the excitement that the
non-Green receivers can bring. Just as impressive is that, of those
three receivers, none of them had a drop and the only time one was
targeted on a play that counted and didn’t come up with a catch was when
Andy Dalton overthrew Hawkins in the end zone in the second quarter on
the drive that netted a 39-yard field goal.

Hawkins’ catch — and run — gave hope that
there are enough playmakers that other teams will have to worry about
more than just Green.

“He has great quickness and then he has
enough speed that he can out-run people,” Bengals head coach Marvin
Lewis said of Hawkins. “When he can keep some space and they can’t hold
and grab him, he can be an effective player.”

So too can Binns, the former Bearcat, and
Tate, previously a return specialist.

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Tate recorded his first touchdown
since 2010 when he scored on a 44-yard pass from Dalton in the third
quarter by just racing past his man.

Add Jermaine Gresham (four catches, 37
yards) and the Bengals may just have enough targets that teams will have
to pay attention to the group as a whole, not just Green.

On the other hand, if the defense can’t
stop anyone, the offense would need more wide receivers than the rules
allow to keep up. In just two games, the Bengals have allowed a total of
71 points, the most by a Mike Zimmer-coached defense since his first
year as a coordinator. In 2000, Zimmer’s Cowboys defense allowed 73
points in their first two games. The 869 yards allowed is the most in
the first two games in his career. Through the first two games, 30.8
percent of the plays run against the Bengals defense have gone for 10 or
more yards.

“You can’t win many football games in the
National Football League when you give up whatever we gave up in points
(Sunday),” Lewis said the day after the team’s victory over the Browns.
“I know that for a fact. It’s difficult to score as many as we scored.
You have to play better on defense and you can’t give up explosive plays
like we did, the six explosive plays we gave up (Sunday), you can’t
give those plays up, the run and what, five in the passing game like
that. You’re going to put yourself behind a lot.”

The Bengals’ schedule is very forgiving
the next four weeks — at Washington, at Jacksonville, Miami at home and
then at Cleveland — before their next big test, Oct. 21 against the
Steelers at Paul Brown Stadium.

Thinking Out Loud

I was shocked — beyond shocked, even —
when I saw Armon Binns go back into Sunday’s game after he was hit by
D’Qwell Jackson in the second quarter. The TV camera caught Binns
wobbling off the field, his eyes in a daze. I’m no doctor and I wasn’t
up close, but just the sight of someone being helped off the field for
what didn’t appear to be an orthopedic injury would fall into the
league’s new rules that are supposed to guard against such actions. ...
We’re seeing the arrogance of the NFL and commissioner Roger Goddell in
the negotiations with the league’s officials. The officiating in the
first two weeks of the regular season has been as bad as expected with
replacement referees. It seems that nothing’s going to change until a
marquee team is cost a victory. If the Cowboys lose a game because of a
blown call, you better bet Jerry Jones will find a way to get something
done. Falcons owner Arthur Blank is on the negotiation committee, and
after Monday night’s debacle we may have seen a tipping point. ...
Johnny Cueto is 3-9 with a 5.10 ERA in 21 career regular-season starts
in September and October. While there’s worry about Aroldis Chapman,
Cueto’s late-season struggles could be a bigger problem. ... The last
team the Reds would want to see in the National League Championship
Series is the Cardinals. St. Louis would need to get the wild card, win
the one-game playoff and then beat the Nationals for that to happen —
but stranger things have happened (and did just last year).